LIBRAR Y OF CONG RESS. 

Shelf ^^J^J^.h. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






In KpniQpieni 



JAMES A. GARFIELD 



HARVARD CHURCH, 



BROOKLINE, MASS. 




3^n i^emoriam 



James A. Garfield, 



BORN NOV. 19, 1831; /^SSASSIN^TED JULY 2. 1881. 



DISCOUESES DELIVEEEl) 



BY 



REV. R. THOMAS, 

Sunday, Sept. 25th, and Monday, Sept. 26th, 1881 



IN THE 



HARVARD CHURCH, BROOKLINE, MASS. 



BcliicatclJ to t\)t Doung fHcn of Broolklinc. 



BROOKLINE : ._ 

PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH. 




J.R.MARVINc^/SON 





'^ill. ^^^ 

' PRINT ERS. \ 

BOSTO N. "X 



SERMON. 



3>a<oo- 



FOR HE WAS A FAITHFUL MAN AND FEARED GOD ABOVE 
MANY. — NEHEMIAH, VH : 2. 



T is not for me to refer, with any regard to 
^J detail, to the recorded circumstances of the 
last three months of suspense and fear. A 
whole people has been watching by a sick bed. 
The particulars of this sad episode in the life of 
the nation are all known. Not for the sake of 
communicating information do we mingle our 
thoughts with yours to-day, but f©r a higher 
purpose — that of looking at this event, which 
has stirred the syjiipathies of the world, in the 
clearer light of the revelation which has been 
brought to us in Christ Jesus. 

When thought is stirred and feeling will have 
its way, then there is no choice left for those of 
us who are called by the voice of the Church 
to occupy its pulpit, but to bring the common 



thought and feeling, as far as we know it, into 
judgment, and inquire whether it be good or 
bad — whether it be intelligent or ignorant — 
whether it be Christian or unchristian? 

At the very outset I admit that irom the 
skeptic's point of view, so very limited as it 
is, there is no consolation to be had from such 
an event as this of the late President's assassi- 
nation. Much otherwise. If life begin with 
birth and end with that we call death, then the 
skeptic and infidel are entirely right when they 
say that we are at the mercy of chance, fate, or 
whatever 3'ou choose to call that power which 
we cannot successfully resist, and which from 
day to day we have to dodge. It is strange — 
passing strange, that the pistol of a w^ily assassin 
should have in it such power, that in the very 
prime of his manhood, just entering on the day 
of his highest and noblest opportunity, one of 
the most trusted men among us, should be cut 
off " with all his blushing honors thick upon 
him," and when it seemed to us we needed his 
courage and wisdom and experience to lead the 
nation to a healthier and higher plane of national 
life. 

I am not at all surprised that skeptics should 
ask, voliere is now your God? Have we not 
ourselves groaned in spirit and asked, ^O Lord, 
why dost Thou permit this? Wherefore is Thy 



hand so heavy upon ns?' Have not Christian 
hearts lodged their objections against it in the 
form of remonstrative prayer? There are times 
in life when even the least rebellious and most 
submissive of God's children are compelled to 
confess their entire inability to understand the 
divine permission. He who of old said, •■! was 
dumb; I opened not my mouth because Thou 
didst it " — was in the posture which oftentimes 
it becomes us to occupy — the only attitude 
possible to us — that of reverent silence; remem- 
bering ever what our Lord said to His disciples 
in the hour of their perplexity, " What I do 
thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know 
hereafter." 

This much we know, that in the present order 
of things we are all exposed to the worst deeds 
of the worst men. And we have no ability of 
seeing how it could be otherwise, and yet that 
measure of human freedom which is inherent in 
our manhood's existence, be granted. Unless 
by a perpetual miracle, such deeds cannot be en- 
tirely prevented. And perpetual miracle would 
be the destruction of so many elements of char- 
acter that the remedy would be worse than the 
disease. As far as we can see, when miracle is 
not necessary to revelation, it is not granted. 

Iliere can be no reasonable doubt that the 
God revealed to us in creation and revelation. 



could in some way have hindei'ed this assassin, 
and have tm-iuHl liim from his purpose. But no 
such restraining power was exercised. The man 
was allowed his full liherty. And we may he 
sure that there was, in some needs of the nation, 
or of the divine government, good reason why 
he should 'he left to the impulse of his own evil 
nature. Not that his crime is diminished one 
iota. Judas was not the less an odious wretch 
of a man, because the betrayal and crucifixion of 
our Lord were on a line with the divine pur- 
poses. Pharaoh was not one whit less a tyrant 
because through his overthrow the divine power 
should be illustrated in a day when men thought 
that the Pharaoh power was supreme and unsub- 
duable. Grod allowed such a man to be raised 
up to be the despot of Egypt, in order that He 
might " show on him His powei*," as the Scrip- 
tures put it. 

And whatever good may come to this nation 
out of this great crime, followed by this great 
loss, we may be suie that it is not all evil, and 
not all loss. To my ow^n mind it w^as most 
impressive and startling that, wiien leadei's of 
thought and speech among us were beginning 
to talk flippantly about this most hateful of all 
methods of revenge — assassination; when apolo- 
gies were beginning to be made for it; when in 
some parts of the country resolutions of sym- 



pathy were being passed with successful assas- 
sins, and we all of us were rather inclined to 
be lenient and apologetic in speech under the 
force of the idea that anything which will 
wrench liberty from unwilling hands is to be 
tolerated— that then, m that hour, the crack of 
the assassin's pistol was heard in Washington, 
and our own Chief Magistrate fell before it. 

That such a man as Garfield should be assas- 
sinated — confessedly one of our noblest and 
best, the flower and fruit of all that is character- 
istic in American civilization; whose election to 
the Presidency was so auspicious, hailed by 
almost everybody with satisfaction, — that he of 
all men should be shot as though he were the 
worst of men, — with all our musing during 
these sad summer weeks, I think that we have 
scarcely yet had any adequate apprehension of 
how much it means. If a man of the late Presi- 
dent's high character is not safe from the assas- 
sin's bullet, no one is safe. 

I think that we are not free from blame if we 
do not look at this matter in its broadest rela- 
tions. We do not like to confess that there is 
anything in it which connects it, even indirectly, 
with any evil habits in our socialism. But if we 
regard the deed simply as the act of a half- 
crazed, ambitious, disappointed man who wanted 
to revenge his ill-fortune on some one, and so 



went for the most prominent man in the country 
— if that to us is the whole storv, it is not likely 
that a very deep impression will be produced on 
our minds, even by an event so sad. Of course, 
every man who temporarily or permanently lets 
any passion or evil tenij^er rule him, instead of 
being guided by reason, is in a sense insane, but 
in no such sense of the word as deprives him of 
responsibility. There is a motive for his mad- 
ness, a purpose, a plan, a method in his madness. 
He knows what he is doing, and does it. The 
motive, the means and the end ai'e connected. 
And there is no room for any apology for such 
deeds done in the heat of passion; no apology to 
be made for them even if, as is reported, this 
wretched man is trying to make jjeople believe 
that he did what he did conscitrutiously. For if 
a man can assassinate another conscientiously, 
he is at the deepest depth of degradation, at the 
very lowest point of human depravity. 

"It is not denied, (says Bushnell, who had an 
insight into human nature that was wonderful 
for its accuracy and its de|)th), that all men, 
taken as being simply men, have consciences; 
they would not be men without consciences. 
But there is a very ^rreat diffei-ence in the de- 
grees of consciences and the kind of timber 
they are made of. Some conscien(*es seem to be 
wholly insignificant and weak till they are tem- 



pest vStriuig, or get mounted somehow on the 
back of passion. Then there is no hydrophobia 
so incurably mad; and there is in fact no hinnan 
creature so thorou2:hlv wicked and diabolical 
as he that is protesting in the heat of his will 
or the fume of his grudges and resentments, 
how conscientious he is." And so any religious 
talk on the part of this man who has done the 
most hateful of all depraved deeds but shows 
how bad he is. 

Xow, in this and all nations, there are scores 
of men just as wicked, just as revengeful, just 
as bad as this assassin. They have no control 
over themselves. And such speech as that we 
hear too often against men in high place and 
high office, influences their passions, and sup- 
plies them with arguments and reasons why they 
should i-evenge their own disappointments in 
life on men who, as they say, could help them if 
they would. This class of persons is inci'casing 
in numbers, and if the most powerful rebuke 
which can be given them is not given, — if the 
human mind is not schooled into a healthy ab- 
horrence of such crimes as that from which we 
sufler to-day, no man in high office is safe. 
And that is one reason why this wretched "spoils 
system," as it has come to be called, ought to be 
abolished, and some juster and better system 
take its place. It is not simply that it is waste- 



10 

fill of money, — it is ruinous to manhood, raising 
as it does a crop of men spoiled for everything 
but otRce-seeking, and hungry as dogs for the 
crumbs which fall from the rich man's table. 

We may fight the fact as much as we will, but 
it remains a fact, that indirectly, if not directly, 
we owe the loss w^e mourn to-day to this system 
and its wretched involvements. ' Government 
ought to find me a place, and if it does not, so 
much the worse for government/ That, on his 
own confession, Avas the feeling in the mind of 
the assassin. And I fear that he but represents 
the feeling of hundreds in all parts of the land. 
But government is not a father to provide bread 
for his children. It is only a guardian to defend 
them in the possession and right use of life and 
property. 

Turning, however, from the darker to the 
brighter side of this event, while we mourn the 
loss of one whose life and opportunity seemed so 
full of promise of blessing to us, yet the unify- 
ing influPMce of this event on the nation^ cannot 
but be fruitful in good wishes and in brotherly 
confidences in the time to come. 

Xot for nothing have we all been watching 
by this sick bed. Not for nothing has the sym- 
pathy of the world been turned to this nation. 
Deep down in the hearts of the people there is 



11 

a use and a service for such an event. And 
though in a few brief weeks our attention will be 
turned to new men, and it may be new measures, 
and the tender pathos of the last few weeks will 
have but slight traces of it left, and the old 
common-place life will run on in its old channel, 
yet T do not think we can be quite as far apart 
as before. A common trial and common sorrow 
bring men nearer together. They deepen the 
relations between them. And so, North and 
South, East and West, bendin^' together over 
Garfield's death-bed, and togethei* dropping 
tears over his grave, will feel more tender to one 
another. 

But sympathy has not been confined within 
national limits wide as they are. The flag half- 
mast high is seen not simply o'er the territory 
where the "Stars and Stripes'' float; but enfolded 
with it another flag — ^'the flag that braved a 
thousand years, the battle and the breeze," the 
flag beneath which, ere this land had risen from 
the tempestuous main, the battles of Crecy and 
Poiciiers and Agincourt were fought and won — 
the flag beneath which Richard and his Cru- 
sadei's fought in the Holy Land, the flag 
which waved o'er Nelson's ship and was borne 
aloft at the head of the armies under Marlboro 
and Wellington; that flag, too, is half-mast 
high to-day — in the docks of Liverpool, in the 



12 

streets of London and Dublin, in the navy 
yards of Chatham and Portsmouth, on the castle 
of Edinboro, o'er the palace at Windsor, and 
wherever Englishmen live and love and labor — 
to use Daniel AVebster's words, wherever ^' the 
morning drum-beat, following the sun and keep- 
ing company with the hours, circles the earth 
with one continuous and unbroken strain of the 
martial airs of En^'land " — there to-dav the flao: 
is half-mast high; the ocean is dried up; there 
is no more sea between us; prosperity divided 
us, but sorrow has made us one. The choicest 
wreath on Garfield's coffin is that of England's 
Queen; and for the first time in history, the 
most aristocratic and exclusive court in the 
world goes into mourning for a man in whose 
veins not one drop of royal blood flows, and 
the true kingship of kingly character is freely 
and fully recognized. 

Trulv "It is better to «'o to the house of 
mourning than to the house of feasting.'' 

And so while we mourn, we sorrow not as 
those who sec no l)right light in the cloud. 
The silver edges of the cloud that is dark 
in its aspect towards us, show that the sun is 
shining behind it, and that the ui)per surface 
of it is all light. Yea, I cannot but feel that 
these fingering weeks have been rich in mercy. 
Though they have for the sufferer been weeks 



13 

of pain, and though some have hastily said that 
if he must die, was it not better for him to die 
at once and be spared the suffering so far as 
he JnmseJf \yas concerned, and the suspense so 
far as others were involved ; yet I believe that to 
the most of those who think at all, it will be 
evident that we should have lost a great deal if 
the death had followed suddenly upon the deed. 

For the man was as noble in suffering as he 
was in action. We know him better now than 
before. And if the character of individuals 
deepens and broadens in affliction — if suffering 
has in it, as it always has, something of vica- 
riousness, so that they who suffer, suffer not 
merely for themselves alone but for others, — 
would it not betoken a terribly hardened condi- 
tion of heart if w^e all were not something better 
for this tender and protracted union of sympathy 
and feeling? 

And yet again, have not these weeks of suffer- 
ing and pain — borne by this martyr of ours so 
uncomplainingly, so bravely and so submissively 
— made us all feel that it is worth while to 
have a character free from reproach and stain? 
Daring these weeks, men everywhere have been 
reading the incidents of Garfield's life, and as 
they have jend of him, of what he was and 
what he did; as they have marked his deeds and 
conned his words, their sympathy has grown 



14 

warmei', their admii'ation has deepened. It did 
seem too bad that such a man, with such a 
record and snch a character, should be shot 
down like a dog. 

Pie was such a man as the nation would wish 
to have in its highest place of duty and of honor; 
such a man as the best of earthly fathers could 
point his son's attention to and say, ^^ Be as he 
was; copy his example, and you will do well;" 
such a man as the aspiring collegian in the 
halls of learning could take as his model, — 
such a man as every right-hearted mother w^ould 
wish her son to be, — such a man as the Christian 
felt the freest liberty in praying for — that God 
w^ould, if it w^ere possible, spare his life, that, 
restored to us, he might do the Divine will in 
the highest seat of honor the land knows. In 
our prayers there has been no reserve; nothing 
in his character holding us back from sincerest 
truthfulness. 

^ever, perhaps, in its history, has the nation 
gathered so lovingly and devoutly around the 
couch of any one man; and we may be assured 
that, though the desire of our heart has not been 
granted, yet, as with Cornelius, ^- our prayers 
and our alms have gone up as a memorial before 
God." Xo Christian can i)ray absolutely and 
dictatorially. Always and ever we pray in 
Christ's name, (that is, as He would pray,) and 



we know how lie prayed, '■ Father, if it be 
possible let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, 
not as I will but as Thou wilt." 

Much of very ignorant speech is uttered on 
this subject of prayer; as though, because we 
pi'ay, it must of necessity be that God will do 
the precise thing we ask. A moment's reflection 
would make it evident to us that this could not 
be, unless that precise thing were the very best 
possible. " We know not what to pray for as 
we ought." We can only ask for that which 
seems to us practicable and best. Presu7n2Jtion 
would take the government of the world out of 
the hands of God and put it into creature hands, 
but faith would not. Faith says, " Though He 
slay me, yet will I trust Him." Prayer is often 
the effort of the soul to Tc7iow what the will of 
God is. It asks in order to know. If the thino^ 
asked is not granted, then Faith assents, and 



smgs on : — 



" Good when He gives, supremely good, 
Nor less when He denies ; 
E'en crosses from His gracious hand 
Are blessino-s in dissfuise." 



^»" 



The praying man may not have that for which 
he asks, but he will have strength to bear his 
disappointment without bitterness. As he of old 
said: "I am a wonder unto many," so many 



16 

since his day have said, " I am a wonder to 
myself. That I eoiild ever have borne what I 
have borne, I had no idea." We know how 
the King of Israel prayed for the life of his 
child — begged constantly of God that the child 
might live. But it died. And how did he con- 
duct himself? When God had taken his child, 
he rose and put off his mourning apparel, and 
called for food, and went into the house of the 
Lord and worshi^Ded. His servants thought it 
strange conduct, so different from what they 
anticipated. But he replied: "Now that the 
child is dead, whei'efore should I fast? Can I 
bring him back again?" And then there came 
upon his spirit the sweetest of all thoughts: "I 
shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." 

And in all bereavements that are deeply felt, 
that thought is necessary to the quietude of the 
soul, that it is not death to die; that" if our 
earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we 
have a building of God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal iVi the heavens;" that the service 
here is only preparatory and preliminary to the 
higher service elsewhere. 

Be sure that that life which is no lonsfcr ours 
was not given, and nurtured, trained, schooled 
and developed into the strength and beauty that 
were in it, in order that it might be blotted from 
existence by the snap of an assassin's pistol. No 



17 

heart but the most depraved can ever credit that, 
no intellect but the meanest can ever make a 
home for such an idea. Oh, no! elsewhere the 
martyi*ed President serves his God and his coun- 
tiy. So I cannot but believe. 

But another thought comes, and it is a painful 
one — Are ive loortliy of our best men? Is it not 
possible that sometimes God calls away some of 
the choicest and best, because those .for whom 
they live and labor are not worthy of them? 
Death is but removal. And such a removal as 
this may have a reason deeper than we have 
ever suspected. 

At any rate, let us ask ourselves the question : 
Are we worthy of our best men? For, be sure 
that when the best man is in the place of sover- 
eignty, he will be as the candle of the Lord in 
the dark ])laces of the land. 

I have not a doubt but that in the Mormon 
temple to-day some such word as this will be 
heard: — that God pei-mitted the late President 
to be shot down because his life threatened the 
very existence of Mormonism. And until the 
whole people are ready for action in regard to 
such evils as afflict and disgrace our socialism, 
no man of high integrity and aggressive princi- 
ples must expect quietude and safety. Still, 
gloomy though this doubt be — whether w^e are 



18 

worthy of our best men, whether we would not 
prefer that men inferior to the best be in the 
places of power, — yet no one can say of us in 
this hour, "The righteous perisheth. and no 
man layeth it to JieartP 

Though to-day and to-morrow are days of 
funeral services, and some of you probably may 
wish them gone, yet be assured of this, — that w^e 
need to face the calamities of life; that sorrow 
will not harm us unless it harden us; that, while 
there are so many by word and deed defying 
Ood^ and asking: — "Who is the Lord, that T 
should obey His voice — I know not the Lord, 
neither will I let my evil habits go?" so long in 
some form or other calamity will strike us. The 
assassin's pistol will be here. Dynamite and the 
da<2:"i>'er will be heard from. 

And prone as we all are to go to the house of 
feasting, there to sow the seeds of frivolity and 
animalism, yet T pity the heart that does not per- 
ceive that o'er this house of mourning there has 
stretched the rainbow of mercy. "When I bring 
a cloud over the earth then the bow shall be seen 
in the cloud." It has been seen by all but the 
blindest. The tears that have been shed o'er 
Garfield's grave have been translucent with the 
light of God's countenance, and thus the bow of 
mercy has been formed. 



19 

And who- of us in this hour does not pray 
" God help this stricken wife — this aged mother 
— these sorrowing orphans." Our loss is great; 
theirs is irreparable. Th.e Lord have mercy 
upon them and strengthen them. The Lord lift 
up the light of His countenance upon them and 
give them peace. 




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ADDRESS. 



JJV<C 




E cannot all attend the last sad rites 
at Cleveland to-day. Both duty and 
inclination would prompt us thereto. And so 
we assemble in our churches at the hour of 
sepulture, there to put ourselves into the atti- 
tude of fellow-mourners with those who at this 
hour in the metropolis of northern Ohio — th^ 
fair and beautiful city on the shores of that far- 
stretching inland sea — consign to the dust 
whence it came all that remains of President 
Gai'field. We say, in customary phrase, " all 
that remains," but much more remains, as we 
feel and kuow, than the worn-out material 
body. His example remains, and the more 
minutely we examine into it the richer it 
becomes. 

There are instances of public men, and they 
are too numerous, in which it is perilous to their 



21 

reputation to lift the veil which is dt-awn over 
the private and domestic life. Napoleon I. was 
the most bi'illiant general of his time, but the 
memoirs of Madame de Remusat and the Life 
of Madame de Stael forever kill our lespect for 
him as a man. Lord N^elson was the most 
daring, skillful, and courageous of all naval 
heroes, but one must not search too .piyingly 
into his private life. And so, if the task were 
not disagreeable and hateful, we might pursue 
our investigation and show how often it has 
been that, in order to command respect for the 
brilliant career of prominent men, it has been 
necessary to apologize for this and that, or to 
preserve a discreet silence where speech would 
only be accusation. 

With nothing of this reserve do w^e stand by 
President Garfield's tomb to-day. Search his 
histor}^ through and through, and there is posi- 
tively nothing that need be covered up from the 
public gaze. Follow him from end to end of his 
laborious and useful life, we detect nothing of 
impurity, nothing of meanness, nothing of craft 
or subtlety. 'No more exemplary life has been 
before the public gaze since people mourned foi* 
the great first President of this Republic. 

As a son how dutiful; as a boy how industri- 
ous; as a student how diligent; as a young man 
how persistent in his determination to excel; as 



09 



a scholar how thoron<»^h; as a citizen how loyal; 
as a soldier how conra<j^eous; as a politician how 
patriotic, incorruptible, and pure; as a friend 
how true; as a husband how loving and faithful; 
as a father how careful of his children's welfare; 
as a grown man how reverential towards that 
aged mother whose charactei* was largely repro- 
duced in him; as a man of aspiration and lawful 
ambition how resolute in his I'esolve to rise only 
by rectitude; as a Christian how simple in his 
discipleship to his Lord. Set him in the fiercest 
light you will, and there is next to nothing to 
excuse. The life is singularly brave and clean 
and pure. And so wonld we have it. 

As we stand to-day by his grave and drop 
there our handful of tiowers, our sorrow is as 
real as our eulogy of him is fitting and candid. 
We cannot do him good or harm by it. As far 
as we know, (though really we do not know,) 
he is beyond the influence of our praise or 
blame. Yet such a pure and noble life gives us 
a liberty of speech which, if it were less pure 
and less noble, we could not have. 

There are times when silence is ominous, — 
times when a man, called to travel the I'oad of 
eulogy, has to pick his way carefully, lest by an 
indiscreet word he should cause some door, 
garlanded with flowers, to fly open, behind which 
a skeleton is hidden. We have no such fear 



23 

haunting us to-day. It might be the grave of 
an infant by which we stand, for of Garfield as 
of the fairest child, we can dare to say, " Of 
8uch is the kingdom of heaven.^' 

I have neither the time nor the disposition to 
offer you any biography of our departed Presi- 
dent. Nor is it necessary. There are facilities 
enouo'h for oettino: at all the facts of his life. 
Bnt I am persuaded that very few indeed of our 
j)eople knew how good a man had been nomi- 
nated for the Presidency. The deed of the 
assassin has revealed him to his own nation and 
to the world as perhaps no deed less saddening 
could have done. 

It is not that by our words of eulogy to-day 
we ai"e offei-ing a cheap kind of atonement to his 
family for their and our great loss. He was a 
better man than we knew. We knew that he 
ranked high as a General; we knew that he was 
one of the most skillful debaters on the floor of 
the House of Representatives; we knew that he 
was a force second to none in political cam- 
paigns. 

But not one in a thousand knew how he had 
been drilled in the school of adversity in his 
earliest days; how he had borne the yoke in his 
youth; how self-denying he had been in order 
to get an education which should fit him for any 
position to which he might be called; how high 



24 

a rank he had taken in college; how noble a 
career he had run everywhere. We did not 
know of his simple, manly religiousness; of his 
consistent, Christian discipleshij), and how no 
press of public duty had ever cooled his relig- 
icnis fervor or altered his religious habits. We 
did not know of this. Nor were we acquainted 
with the high tone of that quiet home life which 
he lived at Mentor. We did not know that in 
his own home his wife was competent to give a 
classical education to his sons, and that she 
would be able at Washington, almost for the 
first time in the history of the AVhite House, to 
converse with foreign ambassadors in their own 
languages. Ordinarily a man's home is his 
castle, and its ])rivacy ought not to be invaded ; 
but that which has become matter of public 
notoriety can no longer be considered private. 

Moreover, we knew so little of what may be 
called his jprivate ^;4>Z^7/caZ life — so little of 
how he came to be Representative of his State 
in Congress, whether by virtue of real worth oi* 
by subserviency to interests that were local and 
uni)atriotic. We know now that nothing but 
his sterling worth of character gave him his po- 
sition; that instead of being slavish and obse- 
quious, he was singularly independent. 

When the Greenback idea had a strong hold 
upon the public mind in his State, and he was 



25 

urged not to commit himself in favor of hard 
money, as " an indiscreet word might cost him 
his nomination," he said: "Much as I vaUie your 
opinion, I here denounce this theory that has 
worked its way into this State, as dishonest, im- 
moral, and un])atriotic, and if I were ottered a 
nomination and election for the period of my 
natural life on this i)latform, 1 should spurn it ; 
if you should raise the question of I'enominating 
me, let it be understood you can have my ser- 
vices only on the ground of honest payment of 
the debt in coin, according to the letter and 
spirit of the contract." 

This is only one of many illustrations that 
might be given, all tending to show that he 
owed his position as a representative man to 
his integrity as much as to his intelligence. It 
is true- that he was dowered wnth no little of 
attability and urbanity. Xo one who saw him 
for live minutes in intercourse with men, but 
perceived that. Yet it came evidently from 
sim])le good nature, and not from effort and 
policy. The present minister at the Court of 
St. James testified before a crowded meeting in 
London, held on Saturday last, that President 
Garfield once said to him, "It may be a de- 
fect in my character, but I never could hate 
anybody." 



26 

The more searchingly we inquire into this 
man's character and conduct, the more does the 
idea shape itself into clear aud impressive form, 
that Qod intended him to he, to the rising 
young men of to-day^ an illustratice example of 
a righteous successful man, —3. man who attained 
to the highest seat of power b}^ no arts that 
were unworthy, by no methods- that were im- 
peachable. And this high mission is made more 
impressive than it ever could otherwise be, by 
the sad event which has ended the natural life 
of this great and good man. 

Lincoln was our war-martyr. Garfield is our 
martyr in times of peace, a peace, alas! which 
will be little better than a bloodless civil war so 
long as this wretched spoils-system continues. 
The end of that system would be, that where 
now we have one Garfield in Congress, we 
should have fifty; that the worthiest and best 
men in the country wotild not be above politics, 
when they shall be untainted with the corrupt- 
ing idea of seeking place for the sake of the 
patronage belonging to it, or for the sake of the 
lucre directly or indirectly accruing. 

They have a very low and poor, and unjust 
idea of manhood, who say that if powe-i- and 
patronage were abolished, and there were no 
spoils to be controlled, men would not be found 
to interest themselves in the government of 



27 

the country. The very opposite would be the 
result. The positions of Senator and Repre- 
sentative of the United States must ever be 
of such high honor that if there were not a cent 
of emolument attached to either, they would 
have an attraction for men beyond anything else 
that the country can offer. Men who to-day will 
not allow themselves to be put in nomination, 
-who will not be classed with politicians, would 
hear the bugle call of duty, and would obey the 
summons to serve their counti*y, when nothing 
but honor was the reward. We need never fear 
that the abolition of the spoils system would 
mean empty chairs in the House of Representa- 
tives and in the Senate chamber at Washington. 
However, I must not d^vell on that theme to-day. 
Yet, standing by the' side of Garfield's grave, 
how can we avoid the reference? 

I think that at this juncture, if we must have 
another Presidential martyr, it is matter of con- 
gratulation that he is such an one as him we 
mourn. We live in an age when the word "suc- 
cess " is beginning to be tainted — when to 
speak, of a successful man is so sadly often to 
speak of a corrupted man. We live in an age 
when the man of many acres is likely to be the 
man of much influence ; when, providing a man 
becomes wealthy, very many will say to their 
sons: "Do as he did; adopt his principles and 



28 

you will succeed. Never mind how you become 
wealthy, or achieve success, only get it, and peo- 
ple will not much inquire into your methods." 

While this kind of speech is too general, yet, 
thank God, it is not universal. For there are 
successful men within one hundred miles of this 
place whom nobody esteems; who, if I am to 
judge from the speech I hear, are despised, for 
their success blesses no one, not even their own 
families; their names are never found on the 
lists which relieve calamity; the widow's heart 
does not sing for joy because of them, nor do 
they dry the orphan's tear. Xot bad men, but 
right-feeling men despise them while they live, 
wrangle over them when they die, and curse 
them even after death. Oh, it is terrible to live 
such a life! 

How different the feeling we all have as to- 
day we stand by President Garfield's grave! 
Occupying the highest seat the nation can give, 
his name is to live in our history forevermore. 
His success was the crown of faithfulness to 
duty in every stage of life, from the first poor 
place he filled to the last dizzy height on which 
he stood. 

As a writer in one of our daily pap^M-s so 
well puts it: — "He was called to higher places 
because he was faithful in humble ones. He 
was called to a Professorshi[) in Hiram College, 



29 

because he had been a good student. He was 
called from grade to grade in the army, because 
of his recognized fitness. He was called to Con- 
gress, because one of the most intelligent con- 
stituencies in the country recognized by his 
worh his fitness for the place. He was re- 
elected time and again because of his faithful- 
ness, his industry, his nobleness. He was finally 
called to the Presidency, not because he was an 
aspirant, but because the people knew that he of 
all men, was the man for the hour." 

Everywhere it was character that gave him 
intiuence. Why he was called to be a martyr, 
that we only know in part. The deepest reason 
for it is in the secrets of the Divine government. 
But even this — his martyrdom — has left him 
only greater. As Minister Lowell said at the 
great meeting held in London on Saturday: — 
" Though there were few from whom death 
wrenched a richer heritage, there w^ere few who 
would, like Garfield, die well daily for eleven 
weeks. The fibre that could stand such a strain 
is onlv used in the makino^ of heroic natures. 
General Garfield, twenty years ago, offered his 
life for his country. He has now died for her as 
truly as if he had fallen dead then. His blood 
has cemented the fabric of the Union; his 
example is a stimulus to his countrymen forever." 



30 

And that is the great use of this sad event, so 
far as we can employ it. In these days of awful 
looseness of morals among our young men, we 
must hold up Garfield's purity. In these days 
when so many homes are blasted by reckless 
thought and more reckless living, we must call 
attention to that pure, bright home at Mentor as 
illustrating our typical American idea. 

In these days, when duty is not too often a 
word to inspire, we must remind our young men 
that the deceased was a man who, always and 
everywhere, listened reverently to the sacred 
voice of duty. In these days o^ political tricJcery, 
it is at our peril that we decline to make much of 
his perfect political honesty. In these days of 
a shallow, thoughtless, flippant skepticism, we 
cannot refrain from pointing to the undisputed 
fact that the springs of this man's integrity were 
in the simple allegiance of his heart to Jesus 
Christ our Lord. In these days when so many 
forces divide us, we must note well how sorrow 
makes us one; and oh, I would that, standing 
by Garfield's grave, the two great Protestant 
English-speaking peoples could forget that there 
had ever been anything to divide us. 

The genuine sympathy of a true woman's 
heart — Queen by birth and queen by nature — 
has done enough in this hour by her unstinted 
sympathy to make us feel that all differences are 



31 

on the surface; differences that arise out of the 
competitions of commerce for the markets of the 
world — but that blood is thicker than water — 
that there should be no sti'ife between us, for we 
are brethren. When, in Exeter Hall, on Satur- 
day last. Minister Lowell said: — "I should do 
injustice to your feelings no less than to my 
own, if I did not oifer here our grateful acknow- 
ledgments to the august lady who, herself not 
unacquainted with grief, has shown so repeat- 
edly and touchingly how a true woman's heart 
can beat under the royal purple,'' — the irre- 
pressible enthusiasm indicated how the people 
felt. 

" Seest thou a man diligent in business. He 
shall stand before kings; he shall not stand 
before mean men." We owe to the departed 
Pi-esident this tribute. If any one elsewhere 
asks from us a name that shall stand as typical 
of the ripest fruit of our American culture and 
life — without reserve and without shame, yea, 
proudly and sympathetically we can point them 
to James Abram Garfield. 

" As some divinely gifted man 
Whose life in low estate began, 
And on a simple village green ; 

" Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, 
And grasps the skirts of happy chance. 
And breasts the blows of circumstance 
And grapples with his evil star. 



'' Who makes by fuicc liis iiu'iit known, 
And lives to clutch the golden keys — 
To mould a mighty State's decrees 
And shajic the \vhis])cr of the throne. 

"•And moving uj» from liigli to higher 

Becomes on fortune's crowning slope — 
The ]iillar of a ))eople's hope — 
The centre of a world's desire." 

Such an one was Garfield. '• I heard a voice 
from heaven, saying unto me, AVrite, blessed are 
the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth, 
yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from theii* 
labors." 

And so, while the mortal remains of our 
martyred President are at this hour being con- 
siirned to the tomb, other " remains " can never 
be consigned to any tomb. There i-emains the 
purity of his life, the courage of his convictions, 
the chaste love of his natm-e, the integrity of his 
action, the unsullied brightness of his example; 
and we would say, with all the emphasis we can 
command, to everj^ rising young American man: 
Be as he w^as; let his principles and his practice 
be yours, and then the America of the future 
will be the most glorious of all lands, and the 
government " of the people, by the people, and 
for the people," will not ])ei-ish from the earth. 
Garfield is President no longer, but " God 
rei<rns, and the Government at Washinsfton still 

1* 5^ 

ives. 



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